


moon's tale

by Astral Aeon (DreamyRequiem)



Series: king [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Gen, but there minor and only mentioned a couple times the platonic stuff is empathized, headcanon that the ring was draining luna more so than the covenants or healing do, headcanons treated as fact, implied/one sides relationships r noctluna and promluna
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 11:19:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13145580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamyRequiem/pseuds/Astral%20Aeon
Summary: Lunafreya Nox Fleuret is a level headed, ramrod steel Oracle. She bows to no one and helps all.Luna, though? Luna is afraid.





	moon's tale

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta`d
> 
> Happy Holidays everyone!! (or good day, to those who don't celebrate anything <3)  
> I'm really glad I finished this in time for christmas day.

Lunafreya is four years old when she comes to the sudden realization that she is not a child.

She's not quite sure what spurs the thoughts, but she knows that she is not a child. Because children do not dream of darkness and death, crimson blood pooling underneath them as they desperately try to protect one of the only people they care for left in their lives.

There is also the fact that Lunafreya is very aware that she has another sibling, a sister who is drowned in darkness. Her family never acknowledges that she had this sister and so Lunafreya does not acknowledge her either. Even if she dearly wants to show her sister the way back to the light.

Despite her never acknowledging her sister, Lunafreya acts as an adult, sometimes soothing Ravus more than Ravus soothes her, for all that he is the older brother. Their mother, Sylva Nox Fleuret, watches in concern because Lunafreya acts as if she is an adult, worrying for her. Is this a sign of something to come?

Their father, Alexandre Nox Fleuret, is unconcerned. As far as he is concerned Lunafreya acts the way she does because that is Lunafreya's way. He tries to convince Sylva of this but his wife still worries. So Alexandre speaks with his quiet, responsible daughter.

You are kind, gentle, and destined for great things, he says, and so I do not worry for you. But Sylva does so I ask you what you wish to do in light of that, my little moon.

Lunafreya wonders what she should do. They worry over nothing, she thinks, but she does not wish to make them worry over nothing. So she decides to do her best to pretend to be more childish, more naïve. It is only with Ravus and sometimes her father that she does not--that she shows herself and not her mask.

It seems strange to her, that her mother worries for her while her father and brother are fine with the way she is. Lunafreya is curious why--so she looks for reasons why in her mother's books. Eventually, she finds the Cosmology--a book of store about the astrals. She sits down and she reads it--and realizes Oh, right. I was born to die, wasn't I.

It's just a flash of insight but it makes her remember a moment--her, older, an adult, with a dark haired man she could only barely see out of the corner of her eye. A being of light and power she could not make out at all was speaking to her--but all she could think was that she had a mess she had to help clean up.

Her sister, that no one acknowledged. Her would have been husband, that people remember but not her. The man who could've been her brother in law, steeped in as much darkness as her sister.

Marie blinks and fades into Lunafreya and the tiny six year old girl lets out a contented sigh. For all that her past life was difficult and disheartening, Lunafreya decides she has a chance in this one.

She is oh so careful to not let her mother know she had snuck into her study. Lunafreya replaces the book and gently pushes the chair back and leaves the room. No one ever notices her enter or leave the room. She quietly pats herself on the back.

Lunafreya has a harder time, now, acting like a child. Before she had remembered it all--or quite a lot of it--it was already hard enough. Now with her life as Marie, Lunafreya didn't know how she should act.

Four years later, when her father dies, Lunafreya has no problems with acting her age. She has never lost a father like this, to war, before. Marie's father had died before she could remember and Lunafreya loves her father like she loves to breath. It is not hard to weep over the death of her rather, at the hands of Niflheim.

Niflheim, Solheim's successor. They even held reign over most of Solheim's land--save for the old capital and the valleys and mountains around it. No--the desert around it. After all, the valleys and mountains were destroyed in the Astrals' rage towards Ifrit's actions.

She throws herself into her studies. She wants to scream, inside, and it's so much easier to just use for her studies than anything else. Lunafreya is an adult, in mind, so she shall act like  it.

It takes a year until she finally feels as if she is free from her grief. Ravus comforts her instead of the vice versa and Lunafreya wonders if this is what her mother always wanted. For her brother to be the elder, to comfort her, while she acted as the child she is meant to be.

Lunafreya, with Marie's memories sharp in her mind, is tempted to do so. If only so that she can see her mother smile like she did when her father still walked there home's halls. And because she is sick of the whispers of madness from the people working around them.

She almost hardens her resolve, to act like a child, until they receive a message. It is the royal family of Lucis, the King and Prince, coming to Tenebrae. 

They arrive and Lunafreya's resolve to act like a child is shaken to pieces, because the boy that looks at her is Izunia. She doesn't know how she knows--but the surety of the thought is like a fire in her chest. Izunia is there and she is not mad.

Izunia's name is now Noctis. Lunafreya has no trouble calling him by that name. Noctis smiles whenever he sees her and she cannot help smiling back. He is kinder than he used to be and she wonders if that is because his life is different--he has no siblings, now, none that he can remember.

Lunafreya wonders why that is.

But one day, she takes Noctis' hand and tells him of the fate they had agreed to. Of course, she does not tell him the latter fact. It was one thing, she thought, to tell him that they were fated to die to save the world and another to tell them that they chose it before they even born.

He stares at her and then nods. He is scared--She can tell that much--but she doesn' blame him. She had been scared for those few seconds before knowing she'd die and then remembering her past life. Perhaps one day Noctis wouldn't be scared anymore--but she knows with surety that that day will be any time soon.

Lunafreya takes him to the sylleblossoms afterwards, telling him all about the flowers. How they're the favorites of the Fleuret Family, and that they were also Lunafreya's favorites.

Noctis tugged a few free and gestured for Lunafreya to kneel over. She knelt her hands on her knees, her head tilted at the boy. He grins and place two of the blossoms behind her ear.

"They look prettier like that, Luna." He says with bright smile.

She goes bright red and flusters. Noctis giggles at her and before she can fluster a scolding at her friend, one of the two men who had come with the Lucis royals appeared to wheel Noctis to his next appointment with Luna's mother.

As he disappears from view, Luna clasps her hands and prays to the Astrals. A plea, to keep Noctis safe even when she is not there. She wants to protect him forever but she knows well enough that protecting someone from the world forever isn't possible.

Luna loves him. Perhaps not as Marie had loved Izunia, but she still loves him all the same.

So when the time comes, when the General of Niflheim impales her mother, Luna almost lets King Regis take her away to Lucis, to safety. Perhaps there she could ensure Noctis' safety and happiness--but she lets go of King Regis' hand.

Ravus needs her. In fact, Ravus needs her more than Luna ever needed him--because as much as she loves him, she had never needed him to function.

So she clasps her hands as the years pass, praying again to the Astrals. For the power of the Oracles because she needs it, so that she may continue to stay at her brother's side. She needs it to protect her people, too, in a way her brother has yet to realize.

Tenebrae needs her.

It had been years since she was expected to rule. Not since she was Marie---but Ravus doesn't seem to intend to ever take his role as Tenebrae's Heir Prince seriously. He is too busy blaming Lucis for the death of their mother, even though Niflheim had been the ones to come and run their mother through, just as they had their father.

Days before she would've been take for Oracle breeding, Sylva comes to her in a dream, clasping her face and saying that she is now Oracle, the last that their world of Eos will ever need.

And so Lunafreya Nox Fleuret became Oracle out of necessity for the world, her friends, and her family.

Luna sighs and ruffles dear Umbra's ears. For all the toughness of the world she is now stuck in, it as nice to hear Noctis' worries in Insomnia. They seem almost trivial compared to her own and if she was anyone else, she may have become jealous or resentful of Noctis.

Instead, she is relieved to read those worries because it means Noctis is still happy and safe. It will not be for years until he begins to send her messages that include his fears of his father's death--his degeneration.

Before she hears those worries, however, she first works to insure Tenebrae's free governance, using her rank as Oracle to do so. It takes years, years where she does not bother Noctis with it. Due to his dislike of politics it was likely some of it would do over his head.

She does, however, tells him of the sylleblossoms she is growing and how the servants he had met while there were doing. In the first years, Noctis had asked after Ravus--but eventually stopped, when Luna had briefly mentioned his anger towards Lucis.

Luna continues the correspondence for years until Ravus tries to put a stop to it. He even locks up Umbra, as if he didn't expect Luna to ask for Pryna's help. The white dog barks, as if delighted to see Noctis again, and takes her message. Pryna doesn't come back for over a week--twice as long as Umbra's disappearing acts.

It's long enough that Ravus thinks that she has 'learned her lesson' and freed Umbra. When Pryna returned, he scowls and storms off, as if finally giving into the futility of stopping her from talking to Noctis.

This is when Luna learns of Prompto Argentum, a boy who is kind hearted and gentle--who she hopes is a friend of Noctis. Or will one day be his friend. She can only hope for it but she tries to ensure that Prompto never sees it as an order--tries to frame it as a request, from a friend for a friend.

And so, seventeen years old, Luna clasps her hands together and prays for the future. For Noctis and Prompto and Regis. For anyone who would take her prayer with them, wherever they went. Perhap, if she prays and hopes hard enough, people will be safer on their travels through the night.

And so the years pass once more. She occasionally sends letters to Prompto the same as Noctis but she wonders if the boy is scared of her. This is because he never writes back--but then, that might just be because she never tells Umbra to stay with Prompto until he writes a reply to her.

She decides to ask him to do so, this time.

It takes a week before Umbra returns, looking very pleased with himself. He carries not only her and Noctis' notebook but also a small letter, from Prompto. It starts with an apology. An apology that he has supposedly tricked her into thinking he is friends with Noctis when he is not (yet) and he is sorry for it.

Luna reads it, feeling guilty. She feels she had put too much pressure on the younger boy, unintended. She resolves to apologize in her next letter and tell him that Prompto didn't have to be friends with Noctis--She had only asked because she thought someone with such a kind heart would be good for Noctis.

His reply to that seems to be stuttering embarrassment at her justly given praise. She only knows it's stuttering because of the crossed out words she could barely make out. She also notes that Prompto calls her Lady Lunafreya.

She pouts a bit: Luna will just have to ask Prompto to call her Luna, when he feels comfortable enough to do so.

So the letters are exchanged between her and Noctis and her and Prompto. They're nice and neither of her two friends ever expect anything from her. Well, nothing you wouldn't expect from a friend, which is a listening ear and someone ready to scold you if they hear you did something very unwise.

For four years, she is happy. Especially when she finally learns that Prompto got up the courage to talk with Noctis. Of course Noctis would want to be his friend, Luna writes, Noctis probably wishes you two were friends earlier. Prompto just seems to fluster.

It takes a couple of weeks but she manages to pull some strings to get a couple of gifts to her friends on their eighteenth birthdays. For Prompto, it was a camera she knew he would love. For Noctis...Well, that was a bit harder. Her knee jerk reaction is to just get him a pillow: The young prince loves to sleep, she knows.

Instead, though, she digs up a pair of her father's old daggers. They are some of the best and with a good clean they'd be great weapons. Especially for Noctis to start with. So, bundling them up, she sends those to Noctis, never telling her that they were her father's. She doesn't want to ever hear of flustered guilt over it.

What she does hear, though, is that Noctis' training and sparring becomes much easier. Something about the daggers she had sent had just...inspired him, he writes. Luna smiles and writes back that she's glad he likes them.

(Noctis never switches from those daggers--not until the very end, when he finds Nyx Ulric's. Because he decides that Nyx Ulric started this fight to reclaim Insomnia: He should get to see it end.)

She is twenty three years old when she realizes that she, rather accidentally, had fallen in love with Noctis--and perhaps one other. But she won't breathe of her second love. Not to the Astrals or even Noctis.

Instead, Luna works it through. Does she love him like a sister? No, a sister would not like to kiss the man in the photos Prompto sent. Does she love him as Marie had Izunia? Close, but not quite--Luna doesn't know what type of love for Noctis she feels.

Devotion, she decides. It's easier than trying to think over it too hard.

Because of this, she is not too upset by the Treaty that demanded their marriage. She only wishes that it was on their terms and that she knew that Noctis saw her as more than a dear friend. Luna burns to ask the question but never does, fearful of the answer.

Yet the day comes when she thinks to go to Altissia, as a note hidden in their notebook asked her to, when her brother locks her up again. To protect her, he says. _Well!_ , Luna thinks, _He has no idea how to protect me at all._

Luna is taken to Insomnia. She watches it burn, as the King is killed, as Nyx Ulric gives his life to let her escape, to live. Part of her feels that it is all in vain--One she gives Noctis that ring, won't her part in all of this be done? Won't she die?

She is more scared of her fate than she has ever been before, stepping out of the ashes of the Crown City. She knows what she has to do. The covenants must be forged and the Astrals and Kings must give their power to Noctis so that he may have the strength to truly kill Ardyn and Stella.

The thought of her once-sister makes Luna pause. She knows the woman still walks Eos--but she has not seen hide nor hair of her since Ardyn had taken the title of Chancellor. Luna wonders what Noctis would think, seeing Ardyn--and then remembers again that Noctis doesn't remember Izunia, not yet.

And she thinks she is blessed to know that Noctis doesn't yet hold the knowledge that they had agreed to be born again only to die like cattle. It may've been their choice, but it still made Luna want to run away, to take Noctis and Prompto and the others and run far away into the ruins of Solheim, where the scourge and its Accursed would never find them.

Luna squashes the urge fiercely. She cannot afford to feel that way.

Not now, when the fight has finally truly begun.

She makes her way to Duscae, first, barely making it past the blockades before it shuts its doors. Leide is now beyond her grasp but that's fine: Her goal is far from Leide anyway.

The trek would be unbearable, were it not for Pryna and Umbra. Umbra left sometimes, carrying a message to Noctis and a note to Prompto but he would always return. Gentiana was also a much welcomed companion, when the Messenger had time to stop by and insure her safety.

Luna wonders if Gentiana knows she remembers. She never asks.

Titan slumbering in the Disc is a colossal being. Luna supposes that makes sense: He is meant to be a god after all. He's mere size and presence however does shake Luna's confidence. What if Titan refuses? Would she had to fight him? She may be handy with Trident (Her Trident) Gentiana had delivered her but she did not think she had the brute strength to match Titan.

She swallows and steels her resolve. Titan will not shake her will today--not ever. Stepping forward, Luna sings the song of stars that she once sang to Noctis in a field of sylleblossoms. Motes of light drift around her and she raises her Trident, directing them to Titan.

The Astral stirred in his sleep, slowly waking. As his one eye opens he demands to know why she is there.

"It is time," Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, The Oracle not the girl, says, "The Scourge of our Star will be burned away by Dawn--But to do so the King of Kings needs your power."

He asks for my power, yet is not here to take my trial? Titan scoffs.

Luna keeps her spine like ramrod steel. He will come, she assures, if only you call. He will come and he will prove himself, I promise you this.

She doesn't know if it is because of Shiva's touch that Titan decides to believe her. Luna hopes that is not the case--Shiva and Leviathan are not known are friends and Leviathan is the Astral Luna frets over the most. The Tidemother is not kind.

Titan has sworn to make the covenant with Noctis with he arrives--now, it is time for her to find Ramuh. The wisest of the Astrals will be the hardest to find, Luna feels. Titan is known to slumber in the Disc and all know where to call upon Leviathan. Bahamut, too, is easy to find, in his crystalline resting place. Shiva awaits Noctis in the cold fields of Tenebrae, already.

No one knows where to find Ramuh.

Luna digs into local legends and stories, all while getting out word to gather the scourge-sick so that she may heal them. This is when she sees her again, her not-sister.

Because Stella stands watching as Luna heals the sick and injured.

Luna ignores her and focuses instead on the task of healing and preserving. She cannot let Stella know that she is well aware of her presence--and Luna fears that she will talk to Stella as Marie would and not as Lunafreya.

As the sun begins to dip towards the horizon, the people disperse all heading to their respective homes. Stella approaches her then, all coy smiles and crinkled eyes. Luna doesn't believe it for a second: The true Stella had never smiled at anyone like she is now.

And so she introduces herself, Stella Marie. Luna doesn't know if that's sweet or bitter--perhaps bittersweet. She wonders if she should tell Stella that she has no right to use the name of the sister she had killed.

...No, that would not go over well. So Luna does not.

Stella offers Luna a room to stay in, for her troubles. Luna declines, having already paid for a room. Not that she is going to say that--if she did, there was no telling if Stella would simply kidnap her from her hotel room.

There is a flash of fury on Stella's face and Luna straightens, her fingers tightening around her Trident. She swears she can see the scar where Izunia had once beheaded Stella but that is a silly thought. The scourge heals all wounds, even those that should by all rights scar.

Luna backs away and so too does Stella. The two blondes stare at one another before Stella smiles and walks around, telling Luna that if she ever wants to take her up on her offer, all she had to do was ask.

She rolls her eyes. Like she is ever going to do that, Stella. She is not a fool, even if Ardyn has lead you to believe that.

In the days following the encounter with Stella, Luna is paranoid. She doesn't know if Stella will reappear, this time with MTs and other types of imperial support. Lune refuses to be caught by Niflheim this far into her journey.

The only upsides are that she had healed some innocent souls and finally got a lock on an old shrine to Ramuh. It is a good a lead as any so Luna rents a chocobo and makes her way into the wilderness, Umbra and Pryna faithfully at her sides.

As they approach the shrine, it is almost as if Ramuh is already stirring, as the sky darkens with heavy rain clouds and distant streaks of lightning and thunder crash. Luna stops at the steps of the shrine, patting her chocobo before dropping off. She will call the poor dear later, after she finishes with Ramuh.

Luna feels the first drops of rain as she steps up the ancient stone stairs, magic throbbing through her like a pulse with every step. When she reaches the top she once more sings--and unlike Titan, who had taken some time to stir from his slumber, Ramuh answers within minutes, a giant figure who looked wise and cunning.

She does not want to get on his bad side, Luna decides.

Ramuh asks her, first, if she thinks the King is truly ready for this burden. Internally, she is surprised. Luna had been under the notion that the Astrals were unconcerned by Noctis' readiness--he would either do or do not. Ramuh, however, seemed to care.

So, unable to stop her flash of curiosity, she asks him why he cares if Noctis is ready. Would his Trial not prove if he is or is not?

The Fulgarian seems only amused, not insulted. I ask, he says, because I fear that this sacrifice should not be made by humans, the victims of our war, but by us that brought the scourge upon you.

Luna pauses, wondering what she should say to that--and then decides. You are truly the wisest of all, Luna says, if you fear that. However, even if the sacrifice should be done by the Six, myself and Noctis...we chose this. We are not innocent souls.

He nods as if she has imparted some great wisdom and the lowers his hand. So, he says, I shall test the King of Kings with my trial. Should he pass it, he shall have my aid.

Beware Leviathan.

She feels her insides freeze as Ramuh vanishes into the storm. Titan had not given her such a warning--but Luna is already wary of Leviathan. Hearing Ramuh's warning--it only makes her feel that her paranoia towards the Tidemother is more than justified.

Luna returns to the foot of the shrine. As she expected, the chocobo had run in the face of Ramuh and she pulls out a whistle to call upon it once more. It arrives with a werk and a shake of its yellow feathers. It's wet, like she is, from Ramuh's enchanted rain.

Now she seeks Leviathan. Or at least the road there.

Because now she must go to where her wedding was once to be: Altissia.

She waits for the roads to open again, so that she may sneak to Galdin Quay. It is currently her best bet to get to Altissia, besides the Broken Passage that links Lucis and Tenebrae. From there she could book passage to Altissia--but that would take far too long.

Luna rides her chocobo for as long as she is able, avoiding the outposts and staying at Havens, where she watches the stars cross the sky like fireflies in the dark. She always wished she could catch fireflies, when Noctis had mentioned them during his visit twelve years ago.

It is not to be, she think as morning comes and once more rides off into the desert. She fashions a cloth mask to cover her face as dust whips around them, unwilling to swallow a mouthful of sand and dust just because the world decides to drop it on her. Luna is thankful for the extra cloth she had stored in Umbra's pack, when the black dog returns to her.

She meets Gentiana once more before arriving at Galdin Quay. The woman clothed in dark as night black seems quietly worried and tells Luna of her meeting with Noctis--of meeting him in the forests of the Chocobo Post, where he frets for Luna's safety. Her heart leaps at the thought that Noctis worries for her--even now, she thinks that perhaps she is more a burden in this life than when she was Marie.

But even so, Luna cannot look away from the path her feet are now walking down. She has a feeling she knows what awaits her at the end--but she can only pray that if she is to die, she dies with Noctis and not before.

Gentiana leaves her to her worry and prays as Luna makes the final approach to Galdin Quay. She is almost surprised at the sight of the ferry: Luna had heard that it was closed down because of the empire. Why is it up now?

Stella greets her with a graceful curtsy and a cheery hello, Lady Oracle. Luna stares and wonders--did Stella do this? Why? She could not fathom what her not-sister gained from allowing her onto a ferry to Altissia. So, against her better judgement, she asks _why_.

The millennia old woman tilts her head with a smile, cool and mocking. You could never comprehend what I want, it seems to say. What Stella says is that of course she would do what she could to help the Oracle! Who wouldn't?

Luna swallows her demand, to tell Stella to stop lying to her. She is not a fool, she knows there is more to this. But all Luna can think of...why make things so hard, if Stella and Ardyn both wish to die?

She watches Stella out of the corner of her eye as she boards the ferry, almost expecting her to stab Luna when she isn't looking. Stella never does, still smiling that cool mocking smile. Perhaps, Luna thinks, Stella also knows more about the future than she lets on.

Hours pass before they reach the water walls, the water’s spray dusting her as the ferry swept through the waters. Luna wishes she had a cowl, to cover her face. Yet, despite her wish to stay hidden, Luna steps out onto the Altissia docks and makes her way to the First Secretary's home.

Dusk had come when she arrived and night falls as she finds the mansion. It's smaller than her own home is but Luna tucks that observation away for later. The guard stop her for all of a few seconds, until they realize who she is. They escort her to the doors, nervous to be in her presence.

What did they think she'd do? Smite them where they stand? The thought makes Luna's lips twitch and she almost smiles.

She stops herself.

Camelia Claustra is a stern old woman who shows great care for her people. Her first thought is for the danger Luna's presence may bring her people...but Luna gently reminds her: Niflheim cannot attack her directly, not without inciting Rebellion from the people. After all, beyond her brother, there is no one left of her line.

This seems to assure the woman for a moment and she asks what Luna intends. I intend, she say, to summon Leviathan. If I do not, the world will be plunged into darkness forever more and daemons shall ruled the land.

The first secretary watches her with quiet contemplation before nodding. Should the Lucis King come here, she says, I will consider allowing you to summon Leviathan. But only if the King arrives and my people are safe.

Luna agrees--because she does not want to see anyone die for this covenant. Not if she can do anything to stop it.

Arrangements are made for Luna's protection until Noctis' arrival. She expects him shortly, as Ramuh's storm had dissipated days before she had arrived at the ferry. Luna can only hope that Noctis knows to come to Altissia.

During her days once more locked into safety, she inanely wonders after Prompto. Luna had not yet read his nor Noctis' last messages to her. Perhaps she should, before the covenant to forged, before the seed of dread in her chest blooms into horror and pain.

She runs her hands over the written messages, smiling at each. They are both short, written in haste. No doubt due to the stains of water on the pages--rain, she knows, from Ramuh's storm. Prompto's tells her that he can't wait to finally meet her, because now they were heading to Altissia. Noctis' is a thank you for the blessing and Luna clasps the two messages close to her chest.

Luna wishes that the seed in her chest would go away.

Days pass and the time comes--Ravus arrives, news of Noctis' arrival on his lips. She would leap to her feet but she feels drained--sitting around waiting for the time to come had seemingly pulled more from her than all her running around Lucis had. Luna wonders why.

(A ring burns in her pocket, with energy pulled through her use of magic. Luna does not know, not until it's all over, what had weakened her to that state.)

She pleads with Ravus to take the ring to Noctis, to forgive Noctis a crime he had never comitted. He does not listen, telling her that this is her path. Luna weeps and gathers herself as her brother hugs her as he used to, before Tenebrae had been taken. She smacks his arms, upset and tired because why can he not do this one thing for her? This is all she wants from him now.

Is it truly too much to ask?

Luna sleeps in her brother's arms, her face marred with tracks of tears. He lays her in her bed and leaves her to her sleep. She dreams of happier times and a world where Ardyn and Stella had never fallen, where she and everyone she cares for could live in peace.

When she wakes up, she wishes that her dream could be reality and reality could be her dream. But no matter what she wishes that will never be the case. Not in a million years, not in an eternity.

Hours tick by and she readies herself. Luna has a speech to make--no, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret does. And then she can go back to Luna, until she must wear her Oracle mask once more. She walks into the sunlight and to the podium, her dress itching her ankles.

She speaks to the people, her voice unwavering as she assures them of the light of hope that awaits them. That light will not abandon them, that hope will not. It is the only thing she can give them, in the coming days. And Luna spots him, Noctis, in the crowds watching her. She smiles and he smiles back.

The seed of dread grows.

With every step to the altar of Leviathan, MTs standing guard at the bottom, the seed grow and grows until it feels like it will choke her from within. Luna closes her eyes and sings, voice gentle and soft, to the seas and tides.

Leviathan awakens.

The Tidemother is as terrifying as Luna had expected. Magnificent and terrible, Leviathan towers over all in the sea, roaring her displeasure at Luna. She does not care for Luna or Noctis or the world they are trying to protect. Luna feels a fire burn in her chest, right through the seed of dread.

 

"Leviathan!" She screams. "You will aid the King of Kings--You will help defeat the darkness!"

 

If the Speck of Kings can defeat me, Leviathan shrieks, than perhaps I shall! But if he does not...I shall Feed as I once did!

Luna doesn't let herself think about that, not as Noctis dives into battle against Leviathan. For a moment, just before Noctis makes impact--Luna wonders if she saw Prompto. She decides she was just seeing things: It is bad enough that she and Noctis are here, she does not wish to see Prompto or Noctis' other companions to be hurt during this.

She does not hear Ardyn as he steps behidn her. She does not hear him a he stabs her--because she does not care. Ardyn, for all that he has stabbed her, is not the threat she watches. Not the threat that is killing Noctis before her eyes.

Her fingers burning with magic, Luna calls the Kings to Noctis and lets her Trident go free. After all, the Trident is as much the Caelum's as it is the Fleuret's.

And she watches again, as Noctis tears through Levaitah like a tornado through trees. Luna clutches her wound, the blood seeping between her fingers. This will devastate him, she thinks, but she cannot save herself. Noctis however? Noctis she can still save.

Water jets from Leviathan as Noctis rips through the Astral, falling to the sea with the trident firm in hand. It vanishes as he falls to her, the Kings' power seeping away once more. Luna curls over him looking at Leviathan with a challenge in her eyes. She may be dying, but she will not see Noctis be hurt by any god.

Leviathan leaves her mark upon Noctis and the seed of dread chokes her until Luna sees no more.

She thinks she can hear her brother and an unknown voice--a voice calling for Noctis. She wonders if that is Ignis or Gladio because she can tell it is not Prompto. It's just the way he spoke...but she wonders why she thinking about such a silly thing.

And who is Prompto?

There is water in her lungs and she feels herself burn and then she is standing in sylleblossoms. A boy stands before her and she thinks Oh. Noctis.

They speak. She wants to grab his hands and tell him everything she can, everything she has seen. But there is not time, not for them. Luna will weep later--now, now she must give Noctis the burning ring and pray for his life. So she lets him go and whispers a farewell to him.

She knows she will see him again.

* * *

(Knowledge is a funny thing--you can know something but not know how you know. Little things that maybe you were told as a child and just became a part of you. You can't ever be certain of what those things are because they're so deeply rooted in you.)

(Seeing Noctis again is deeply rooted in Lunafreya--because that was the way it was always meant to be. Because they asked for this fate, for it to be them and not some new born children who are innocent souls, unknowing of why the gods chose them to die.)

(Luna drowns in death, as Noctis is pulled back to live. She wades through the muck of the scourge, trying to catch up to where Noctis had gone. A frost runs through her and the muck and she catches up--and only for a moment, Noctis sees her again.)

(It is a desperate moment, one they both wish could last for an eternity, so that they could talk and catch up in ways you can only do in person.)

(But the moment ends and Luna follows Noctis through the ice and snow. She follows him into the dark as he struggles to reach Prompto, struggles with the memories slowly sliding into place in his head, struggles with Izunia.)

(He goes to the crystal and Luna waits ten long years, as the skies darken and hopes are stained with pessimism. She wishes she could reach out to the guards of Angelgard, the still living Glaives, but they never hear her voice.)

(Noctis wakes and Luna follows him again. Now, she meets Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio. Her guess before had been right: the voice she had heard before her final moment was not Prompto. It was the scarred and refined Ignis.)

(She does not take the time to wonder why he had been with Ravus.)

(Luna follows the four into Insomnia, mourning the city she never got to know. The city is worse than she had left it, ten years of neglect rotting it's corpse. Luna holds Noctis' hand, for all that he cannot feel her.)

(And, you see, she follows them into fire and brimstone. She screams to Bahamut, the only Astral who had not yet appeared before her. He comes and he defends--just as Shiva kills the fire, kills Ifrit. Noctis walks to Ardyn and Stella.)

(Stella hardly fights, already willing to die. Noctis takes care of her quicker than Ardyn, who is stubborn until the end.)

(She follows Noctis into death and holds Ardyn, stops him for those precious few moments as Noctis strikes and Stella accepts. Luna watches silently as Noctis disappears into motes and fragments of light and glass.)

* * *

It only took a moment, but Marie and Lunafreya become one once more.

Lunafreya had been so scared of Marie, had felt inferior ro Marie's memories, that she had locked herself off from the emotionally. She could touch them and know them but she would never feel them as Marie had.

But here it is: Lunafreya came to terms with herself during that time she waited. She is Marie and she is Lunafreya--they are the same yet not. It is easy for her in understand, after her years Reflecting as Noctis had.

However, now, she waits once more. It'll only takes minutes now, instead of years, but NoctisIzunia comes. He lays in the waters of the Beyond, the muck of the scourge purged from all.

She kneels and soothes his mind: There are frayed edges between Noctis and Izunia, formed by the pain of the Ring. Luna does what she does best and heals it as best she can. It will never be enough, she feels, but it is all she can do.

Noctis stirs and she smiles.

"Welcome home."

* * *

(They will wait, Luna thinks as she holds Noctis’ hand. They will wait for Prompto and Ignis and Gladio. Because they are family and it is time for them all to be happy and burden less.)

(She can’t wait.)

**Author's Note:**

> Luna has an inferiority complex with Marie which is weird because marie is her but not.
> 
> also luna following after Noctis from Altissia to watch over him and his friends, accidentally becomes fond of the boys and decides they're all family gdi.
> 
> I might write a series of afterlife drabbles if people want to see that? but those'll be msotly short and silly i think. Or at least more light hearted.


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